Malleefowl

Malleefowl eat seeds, flowers, ants and beetles.

They find food among the fallen leaves.

Malleefowl eat whatever is around at the time. In the hot summer and autumn they eat mostly ants and the seeds of wattle and senna plants. When the weather cools and the winter rains come, they also eat flowers, herbs, beetles, cockroaches and lerp, the sugary covers made by tiny sap-sucking insects.

They also eat fruits, roots and even fungi.

The IUCN calls malleefowl opportunists that eat seeds (particularly legumes), flowers and fruits of shrubs and herbs, invertebrates, tubers and fungi (Benshemesh 2007). The NSW government says ants and the seeds of wattle and senna dominate in mid-summer and autumn, and that the diet widens with cooler weather and winter rain to blossoms, herbs, beetles, cockroaches, other invertebrates and lerp, the sugary caps of sap-sucking insects.

The IUCN notes that drought reduces both food and the leaf litter needed for nesting, and that introduced rabbits, goats and sheep and native kangaroos compete for food.

The male works on his mound for most of the year.

Malleefowl mostly live alone or in pairs.

Looking after the mound is a huge job. The male digs, rakes and moves sand for months, even when it is very hot, while the female lays eggs and sometimes helps with the digging. When the mound can no longer be kept at the right temperature, the pair leaves it.

Malleefowl make several calls: a loud booming to mark their territory, a soft, drawn-out cluck when a pair is together, and a sharp grunt when they feel threatened. Apart from pairs, malleefowl mostly ignore each other.

The NSW government describes the male moving tonnes of sand and debris in the heat, the female laying and helping to dig, and the pair abandoning the mound and any remaining eggs once its critical temperature can no longer be maintained. Calls include the female's high-pitched grunt, a pair's soft, drawn-out cluck, a loud booming territorial call and a sharp grunt when threatened; the Victorian Malleefowl Recovery Group describes the territorial call as a loud booming in three syllables.

The recovery group says birds of any age tend to ignore each other except for mating or territorial disputes, and researchers disagree about whether the male or the female chooses the nest site. The IUCN lists the species as not a migrant.

There are fewer malleefowl than before.

People count their mounds and protect their homes.

The malleefowl is listed as vulnerable. There are about 20,000 to 30,000 adults, and their numbers have fallen fast. Fire seems to be the biggest danger: it destroys the leaf litter and shelter malleefowl need, and birds rarely breed in burned areas for about 15 years. Drought, foxes and cats, and animals that eat the plants they need also cause problems.

Volunteers and scientists count active mounds every year at more than 60 sites. Much of their habitat is now protected, and some birds have been bred in captivity and released.

BirdLife International assessed Leipoa ocellata as Vulnerable (A2bce+3ce+4bce) for the IUCN Red List (assessed 13 January 2022, published 2022): about 25,000 mature individuals (20,000 to 30,000), from regional densities in New South Wales (2,800), South Australia (4,900), Victoria (6,000) and Western Australia (11,300), with rapid declines over three generations (9.13 years each).

Fire has the greatest effect: breeding rarely occurs within 15 years of a fire, and extreme fire weather and drought are likely to increase. Foxes, cats, dogs, raptors, dingoes and goannas take adults, eggs and chicks, though fox control has shown little effect on breeding numbers; rabbits, goats, sheep and kangaroos compete for food and cover; feral deer damage mounds in south-east South Australia; and road deaths occur where birds eat spilled grain. Most habitat is now conserved, a national recovery plan exists, community groups monitor more than 60 sites, and captive breeding supports some populations (IUCN).